


the world won't turn until something breaks

by heterocosmica



Series: 15 minute fics [21]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anxiety, Family, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gen, Loneliness, set in summer of GoF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 14:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21411334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heterocosmica/pseuds/heterocosmica
Summary: Percy writes his report on Cauldron Bottom Thickness.
Series: 15 minute fics [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1242938
Kudos: 11





	the world won't turn until something breaks

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the 15 minute fics prompt word #27 on pillowfort.

He can hear his brothers laughing downstairs, their voices sweeping through the air and reaching his ears as a murmur.

With a heavy heart, he looks back down to his report, swishing his wand dismissively towards the noise, as if trying to shoo it away. Silence falls back around him but the empty pit at the bottom of his stomach grows, slowly, until he can feel it envelop his insides, pushing at his throat, tearing his breaths away.

He stares at the parchment before him with a frown. His focus is split between the enormous pile of date he is supposed to be compiling into a concise report and the air that doesn't seem to be reaching his lungs. Exasperated, he lets his eyes slip closed, trying to calm himself down even the slightest bit.

Placing his hands flat on his desk, he takes a long breath through his nose. Holds it. The wood grain under his fingers is raised and rough, the lacquer cracked in places, almost sharp enough to cut. Slowly, he glides his fingertips over it as he lets his breath out through his mouth.

He keeps breathing, slowly, focusing on the surface of the desk, until his fingers snag on a carving and, even though he knows what it says, he opens his eyes to look at it. There, in the worn surface of his wobbly desk, is "BILL" in big, block letters.

He stares at it for a long moment, the heaviness in his gut, the one that never really leaves him, sitting still. If Bill were there- if Charlie were there- well, would anything really be different? It never had been before.

If only he were as brave and bold as Bill and Charlie had been. If only he could have found a way out, a door to escape through, like they did. Perhaps if he weren't forced to live in a house full of people who can't stand him, well, then he wouldn't feel this alone.

His breaths now settled, he pushes those thoughts aside.

He knows why he's there. Mother and father desperately need another paycheck, now that Ginny has hit puberty and refuses to wear or carry her brothers' hand-me-downs; now that something is drawing nearer and there's tension in the air; now that father's position in the Ministry is becoming more and more precarious. They also need someone on the right side of the Ministry, considering that the government holds power over whoever displeases it and Ron and his little friends certainly hadn't been the model subjects since they started Hogwarts.

They need respectability and accountability and a shield and Percy has always been the good one, the one who does everything right, the one the right path is expected from. If he had pissed off like Bill and Charlie, if he had left their parents in this thing alone, he'd never be able to come back. The rules have always been different for him.


End file.
